Reno RR Trench Archaeology

From the time the Central Pacific pushed the Transcontinental Railroad through Reno in 1868 the tracks bisected the city north and south. Every time a train went through, traffic stopped. Putting the trains underground, in a trench running through the central part of the city, was the solution.
Click here to see downtown Reno before the trench.
Excavation in 2004 for the trench uncovered a Native American village site north of the Truckee River. Working at the site at the western end of the trench archaeologists meticulously revealed housing pits and artifacts thousands of years old.